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About People to People International Student Travel Programs
People to People International Student Travel Programs turn the world into a classroom, creating an educational and inspirational experience that cultivates meaningful connections between students from across the US and from different countries.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Authentic cultural immersion activities
- Interactive learning opportunities
- Balances sightseeing and service
Cons
- Summer programs only
Bottom Line
People to People International Student Travel Programs allow students to enjoy fully immersive educational experiences in several different geographical regions.
People to People International Student Travel Programs
People to People International Student Travel Programs are immersive, educational experiences that allow students to travel with purpose. The company offers trips to multiple locations, including Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Oceanic region. People to People plans programs for 6th-grade students up to postgraduate college students.
| Region | Trips available | Age |
|---|---|---|
| Africa | 2 | 8th grade - postgrad |
| Americas | 1 | 6th grade - 12th grade |
| Asia | 3 | 6th grade - postgrad |
| Europe | 17 | 6th grade - postgrad |
| Oceanic | 2 | 6th grade - 12th grade |
How People to People International Student Travel Programs work
There are two ways to travel with People to People:
- National delegations: Students from all over the U.S. come together to join a travel group chaperoned by carefully selected educators chosen by People to People.
- Local delegations: Students from the same area travel together, led by an educator from the same region.
A delegation manager stays with the group 24/7 for safety and to help the itinerary run smoothly. Each educator chaperone selected by People to People receives a background check and undergoes yearly training. They must also be CPR and first aid certified. Students will participate in monthly online and/or in-person meetings to help prepare them for the program. Students are also assigned a student success advisor who will help answer any questions.
During the program, students enjoy an immersive educational experience that includes:
- Homestays: Student travelers have the opportunity to stay with a local host family, which gives them an authentic and invaluable glimpse into the area’s culture.
- Unique access: Participating travelers have unmatched opportunities that include meeting with a former member of the United Kingdom Parliament, participating in discussions with international students, meeting one of the villagers who discovered the Terracotta Warriors in China and meeting the Swiss Guard in Vatican City.
- Community Services: People to People offers volunteer opportunities so students can make a difference in the communities they’re visiting.
- Activities and attractions: People to People’s travel itineraries are full of adventures such as taking a bike tour of Soweto Township in South Africa, snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef and rappelling in the Tuscan countryside.
- Education opportunities: People to People’s trips let students learn new skills through hands-on activities with experts. Opportunities include cooking classes in Rome, anime workshops in Japan, taking Spanish classes in Valencia and learning from scientists at a biotech company in Boston.
People to People International cost
The cost of traveling with People to People International Student Travel Programs varies based on your trip location, length and itinerary. The total price is typically between $4,000 - $10,000. When booking a trip, you can choose to pay the amount in full or pay a deposit, generally $350, to reserve your spot. The company offers a few payment plans to choose from as well as fundraising ideas.
Your program tuition includes roundtrip airfare, hotel accommodations, land transportation, all meals, attractions, activities, guided sightseeing, all tips and a medical protection plan. The college programs don’t include lunches, and students have a bit more free time on their own.
Are People to People International Student Travel Programs worth it?
If you want an all-inclusive, immersive educational program and can afford the price tag, we think People to People International Student Travel Programs are worth it. The trips are an invaluable real-world experience for students of all ages. Many people are more comfortable joining a travel program like People to People than planning the trip themselves. For one price, People to People handles the details for you and lets you focus on enjoying the sights and attractions of your chosen destination.
People to People International Student Travel Programs Reviews
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Reviewed May 7, 2022
I would not recommend ever using this company. In looking for a company to travel through I had thought that this would be a very reputable company to go through. I was wrong. The company People to People was very unprofessional, uncompassionate, and a very big lack of communication. I signed up my son for the capitals trip to England, Paris, and Rome in 2020 and due to Covid it was cancelled. I called his delegate. She said that she had transferred to another trip and was no longer doing it. No one notified me of this, I thought that everything had been taken care of however that was not the case. We had been dropped without knowing it, no one ever contacted us.
When I contacted People to People directly they told me that they were working on a few loose ends and not to worry that everything was good and that travel for 2021 to the capitals was still on. I kept calling and emailing about a delegate I got no answer, I was being ignored. I started to worry this was in February that they said everything was good. Now in March I get a fine print letter in the mail claiming bankruptcy. I tried contacting someone but still no answer I called the clerk's office. She told me that they had paid over $800,000 back for trips and good luck.
We are now facing court issues to get our money refunded over $6,000 they want us to pay $300-$400 an hour for an attorney. I pray we ever get our money back. This is becoming a real hardship for us as I'm a single mom that worked hard for this trip. They will not return my calls or emails and have shown little compassion for those of us that are out of the money and a trip. I would look into another travel company one that is more trustworthy.. What I thought was going to be a great travel experience was not. This company is not reputable. I hope that I can trust someone else ever again as I love to travel. I would definitely look into another company. You can google it and others will come up, Good luck.
Reviewed Sept. 20, 2021
I am completely pissed and outraged. Their company is so unprofessional and the lack of communication is horrible. I do not recommend spending your money with them at all. I personally have been on a trip with them myself and when I did go in 2018 my experience was horrible! The staff was racist and the kids were out of control. I planned to go again to give them another shot for a trip next year but I canceled. I applied for a refund 6 MONTHS AGO. NO ONE reached out. I had to reach out to them about the money that THEY owe ME! I am now out of $1,000 until further notice. I DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT RECOMMEND THEM AT ALL. KEEP YOUR MONEY!!!!
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Reviewed Aug. 31, 2021
Our booked trip was cancelled 2020, it was transferred to 2021 with us paying $350 transfer fee. When it cancelled again in 2021, we were offered 75% money back. After 6 months, we are still waiting for the money. They asked us to deal with their vendor who handled the credit card transactions to get the money back. When that failed, they then asked us to dispute with our own credit card company. When we disputed, the dispute was declined as they told the credit card company there were no errors. I am losing hope we will ever get the money back.
Reviewed June 16, 2021
Breach of Contract by People to People International toward Student ambassadors who signed up for travel in 2020. I purchased one International Student Travel Programs for my daughter to go to Japan in the summer of 2020 for $7,658. The trip was cancelled due to Covid. They would not give a full refund, but kept 25% that could be used for a trip in 2021. SO we rescheduled for summer of 2021. They cancelled the trip again in March 2021 due to Covid. After two years of dealing with this company I want 100% of my money back. It has been three months since the trip was cancelled and 5 months since we paid in full and still no refund. They are blaming their credit card processing company and will let me know when it is resolved. However, there is not end in sight and at this point I am not sure if I will get my money back at all.
Reviewed April 12, 2021
Breach of Contract by People to People International toward Student ambassadors who signed up for travel in 2020. I purchased two International Student Travel Programs for my daughters to go to Italy, Greece and France in the summer of 2020 for $14,330. The trip was cancelled due to Covid. It was rescheduled for summer of 2021. At 99 days out from the trip, the trip is now cancelled due to Covid. They are offering 100% refund for those that booked in 2021 for travel in 2021, but for those of us that booked in 2020 we only get 75% refund and a travel voucher for the 25% remaining. After two years of dealing with this company I want 100% of my money back.
The refund terms were based on us cancelling travel. I did not cancel travel either year. It is clearly stated in the contract, "if you should choose to cancel..." is the exact quote. I did not choose to cancel and therefore I am not subject to a cancellation fee per their contract. They have breached the contract for two consecutive years. The refund policy penalizes those of us who gave them the benefit of the doubt and rescheduled while awarding those who more recently signed up. I have contacted the company, up to and including the CEO Merrill Eisenhower, to request this refund and have been denied. They continue to quote the contract which has been breached when they did not deliver on the services for two consecutive years. These students deserve their money back.
Reviewed Jan. 1, 2020
My daughter went on the Mediterranean Dreams trip this past summer. She selected that because of the window of time that the trip was on. In general, she had a very good experience. My daughter would say that it was the people that she met on the trip that made the experience. The program exceeded my expectations too.
Reviewed Dec. 27, 2019
I was studying French in school and our teacher would talk about the culture and the food, and that made me interested in France. And then France was one of the countries that the Europe trip with People to People had. I really liked meeting all the kids from different places and then saying how different each country was and what each country had differently. I really liked the program.
Reviewed Dec. 20, 2019
My son did the Discover Costa Rica trip. He got a recommendation from a teacher years ago and we never had the money to do it. So, it was like, "Okay, we can make this happen if you wanna go," and so he went. His favorite thing on that trip was the rappelling to the waterfall. I would have liked a little bit more of the giving back to the communities part personally. He liked working with the children and the stuff that they did. Overall, People for People was well worth the time and the money for him to experience the other culture and to be able to give back to the community by working with the orphanage and the elementary school children.
Reviewed Dec. 19, 2019
I had other children that have previously been with People to People. Recently, my daughter did the Mediterranean Dreams. She enjoyed herself and made some good friends. She enjoyed her homestay family and seeing the sights, like the landmarks. She's going back again this summer.
Reviewed Dec. 14, 2019
Ferdinand, our 14 year old son, had a blast with People to People. He went to the stem research that went from Boston to Iceland and then London and France as well. They went to a lot of different countries and it was his first experience. We have an older daughter that's gone through the People to People program, too, and she went to Australia and Canada. This was the first time our son has actually gone through the program, so we were really excited for him to do that. They both have gone to places where my wife and I had not had a chance to go to. It's on our bucket list.
We've had some experience in the past from our daughter, so we were familiar with the format and felt comfortable handing off our son to the People to People delegates to get them safely back. There was a little mishap on the way back. Their plane had some issues and they had to turn back and get it fixed. They had to stay an extra night in Paris in order to get on a different flight to Boston. But People to People reached out to me and said, "We've got a game plan."
Because my son is a minor, there were some logistics on him, traveling back home to San Francisco and he was an unaccompanied minor once he left Boston. So, we had to make sure that at least a delegate was gonna hand him off to someone from United Airlines. And they took care of him and made sure that he got on the plane and to make sure it was a non-stop. One of the things that we really requested is to make sure that he didn't have a change-over flight somewhere between Boston and California and so, they did that. They accommodated that and they listened to our concerns. And I think the overall experience for him was one that he'll always remember.
His favorite activity was in Iceland. He had to go do a paper or some kind of presentation about the Blue Lagoon. So, he had to do some research, some book work and then present it on the day that they were actually traveling there. And then they got to actually see it, which kinda instills all the things that you read in the books and you get to see the waterfall and touch the water and all that good stuff. So, it's a really good format that a lot of kids don't have an opportunity to do. They might see it on a DVD or on the Nature channel, on the Discovery Channel, or read it in a book, but it kinda locks things in place when you see it in person.
My son was traveling without his parents or sibling, so it's a different experience. When he came back, we could definitely tell he grew being on his own. But he was traveling with one of his cousins from San Francisco and she was 15, so we just made sure that they were on the same flight coming back. He had at least another person to keep him kind of not too homesick. He was gone for a good amount of time, but I really enjoyed watching the highlights. The delegates did a pretty good job of posting certain things on a private Facebook page that only parents had access to, friending within that circle of parents for the student ambassadors, and it was fun watching him go from place to place. It looked like they were having fun.
The stem research was one of the things that he kinda gravitated to just in school-related stuff, and to have People to People kinda infuse those elements in the travel was a definite plus. He was learning all the stem-related stuff and how it applies and also traveling, so he was a learning, traveling student, which is really good. It's a different way of learning, but it definitely beats just learning that stuff at school or at home. It's really nice to be able to go to the place and see and touch and actually step on all the places and landmarks.
People to People International Student Travel Programs Company Information
- Company Name:
- People to People International Student Travel Programs
- Company Type:
- Private
- Year Founded:
- 2016
- Address:
- 44 Merrimac Street
- City:
- Newburyport
- State/Province:
- MA
- Postal Code:
- 01950
- Country:
- United States
- Website:
- www.peopletopeople.com
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